Margate Manager Targeted City Workers Say They Did Private Job

MARGATE -- The Broward County State Attorney`s office is investigating allegations that City Manager Thomas Hissom ordered city workers and used city materials to fill a swampy lake shore behind his home and extend his back yard.

Three city utility department workers said they were subpoenaed by the State Attorney`s Office and gave statements to investigators about the filling of a section of Lake Margate behind Hissom`s property during the fall of 1982.

A three-lot-wide section of the lake`s shoreline, with Hissom`s lot at 6327 NW 11th St. in the center, was filled with lime sludge and dirt hauled from the city`s utility plant, the three workers said they told investigators.

The workers and a private contractor said sod then was laid on the new land, adding 50 to 70 feet to Hissom`s 80-by-130-foot-lot.

Hissom`s lawyer, David Bogenschutz, said he is aware of the investigation and is confident his client will be cleared.

``I think it`s a tempest in a teapot,`` Bogenschutz said on Tuesday. ``I`m sure once the smoke clears, this matter will be put to rest.``

Hissom said that Bogenschutz advised him not to talk to the news media about the investigation.

Hissom, 55, who makes $65,000 a year, was hired in 1977 as Margate`s first city manager.

The city employees who said they were subpoenaed within the past three months and questioned about the work behind Hissom`s home were John Kopp, Ray Farley and John Remeschatis.

``At the time (the work was performed), I was driving the dump trucks and we dumped a lot of lime back there, enlarged his back yard and raised the ground up,`` said Farley, a seven-year city employee.

``A lot of work was done on the property,`` said Kopp, who noted he worked there two weeks on city time, using city materials. ``I just did what I was told.``

The private contractor, Ralph Hall Sr. of Margate, former part-owner of Pittman and Hall Co., said that his company got paid about $40,000 by the city for part of the job.

Hall said he talked last year with Margate Public Safety Department investigators about the work. He said he turned his financial records over to police.

Public Safety Director Laurence Christopher said that his department investigated the allegations against Hissom.

``Eveything that we discovered ... that was told to us was referred to the State Attorney`s Office,`` he said.

The 1986 investigation led to the conviction of the two top administrators in the Utility Department. Keith Schafer, the prosecutor who oversaw that case, said on Tuesday that he could not confirm or deny any new investigation.

Kopp, Farley and Remeschatis said that former Utility Director Jerry David and his assistants, supervisor Jack Brant and assistant supervisor Anthony Sant`Elia, authorized the work behind Hissom`s home.

David and Brant were sentenced to 30-month jail terms this year after pleading guilty to selling a city-owned $9,700 water valve and pocketing the money. Sant`Elia received immunity from prosecution for his testimony.

David, Brant and Sant`Elia were fired by Hissom. None could be located for comment.

Farley and Kopp said they helped the Pittman and Hall Co. dump tons of lime sludge and dirt into the lake behind Hissom`s home.

After the lime sludge and dirt were dumped, Kopp said he helped Ralph Hall Jr., a worker for the Pittman and Hall Co., dig a ditch for an irrigation system and lay sod.

Hall Sr. said the lime sludge and dirt were shipped from the utility plant. He also said that David authorized utility workers to use a city-owned front- end loader and a backhoe, even though his firm was contracted to do the work.

Hall Jr. said David told him the work was being done to rid the city of its lime sludge.

``There was no reason for the work,`` Hall Jr. said. ``It was only beneficial to the property and it enhanced the property.``

State Rep. Jack Tobin, D-Margate, was a city commissioner at the time the swampland behind Hissom`s home was filled in. In a telephone interview on Tuesday, he said, ``I seem to recollect that Tom (Hissom) called (the commissioners) into his office individually and told us what was done. I don`t remember having any problem with it.``

There was an erosion problem along Lake Margate, he said, and lakefront properties in addition to Hissom`s were improved.

A 1981 city ordinance says that people who live on lakeside property must treat any new land that naturally emerges from below the water line, between the lake and their property.